By David A. Fahrenthold and Paul Kane

The Washington Post

March 31, 2011

In past decades, Congress has repeatedly missed its budget deadlines, risking a shutdown. But these impasses were often solved with small compromises.

“That’s the oil that greases the skids. You go to a guy on the other side, and he says . . . ‘If you ask me to vote for A, [I need] $1.5 million to complete the wing on [a] hospital,’ ” said Steve Bell, a longtime staffer for former Senate budget chairman Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), who now works for the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington. “You did it member by member.”

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Economic Policy Project